Sez Me … The thinking may be wishful, but I wish San Diego State football would veer into the wishbone offense. Or, if you prefer another option, the triple option. Apparently it even would be too radical for nonconformist Rocky Long, who doesn’t agree with me and thus puts the veteran coach in...

Union-Tribune columnist Nick Canepa grades the Chargers after Thursday night's last-second 29-28 victory Thursday night at Kansas City. Quarterbacks: A- Philip Rivers had to be great. He wasn’t — and rarely is vs. K.C., his Zola Budd — and then he was, in the end, when it mattered. His 26-yard,...

Union-Tribune columnist Nick Canepa issues his grades for the Chargers after Sunday's 26-21 victory over Cincinnati. Quarterbacks: D+ On a day when seat manufacturers got free advertising at Carson High, Philip Rivers played the NFL’s worst defense. Hot early, he soon found himself slugging through...

Sez Me … Since my salad days (whenever they were), since my halcyon days (whatever that means), I’ve been a proponent of a college football playoff system. Mythical national championships, mythical as they were, were better than the BCS, which was draconian, Charles Ponzi-greedy, and probably would...

Union-Tribune columnist Nick Canepa issues his grades for the Chargers after Sunday's 33-30 victory at Pittsburgh: Quarterbacks: A Crazy night school class, which began with students failing the first semester, acing the second. Completing his first four passes, Philip Rivers led the offense to...

Sez Me … In 1967, the great Jim Murray wrote: “The Heisman should come with two straws.” The 2018 Heisman should buy drinks all around for the bar. Murray was writing of UCLA’s senior quarterback Gary Beban and USC’s junior tailback O.J. Simpson. In ’67, it eventually came with one straw. Beban,...

Union-Tribune columnist Nick Canepa issues his grades for the Chargers after their easy 45-10 victory Sunday over Arizona. Quarterbacks: A Playing in Carson High Stadium, which had a ‘vacancy” sign blinking, maybe it was the empty roar of the seats that awoke Philip Rivers. Late to class (down...

Sez Me … USC lost a game to UCLA last week in a Rose Bowl barely half-filled. Fifty-some-odd-thousand people. Roughly the size of SC’s band. Maybe next year the Judases should allow the Trojans and Bruins to meet at Carson High. It was shrugged off by some as a meaningless game. Meaningless? USC-UCLA?...

Chargers Stadium

In the latest television ad from the people behind the SoccerCity campaign, former San Diego Taxpayers Association chair April Boling rejects SDSU West, while soccer star Landon Donovan advocates for the rival stadium ballot initiative. Going before city voters on Nov. 6, SoccerCity (Measure E)...

More Nick Canepa

It is my custom on this holiday to dish out thanks. As usual, when I cook up the stuff, some of it tastes good, some of it doesn’t. A few sides are served cold. It’s just my way of giving something back. So, Happy Thanksgiving. Dinner’s ready. Dine at your own risk. Thanks to: Fredo Spanos: For...

Union-Tribune columnist Nick Canepa grades the Chargers after their 23-22 loss to the Denver Broncos on Sunday at StubHub Center in Carson: Quarterbacks: F Up there with the worst games of Philip Rivers’ career? A mess and Rivers was a major part of it, looking like a rookie at the end when the...

Sez Me … Doing the math, let it be said the Judases still need to show their work. At this point, when it comes to The NFL Team That Used To Be Here, I am Mickey Spillane’s “I, The Jury,” and deeply sequestered. True, they are 7-2, winners of six straight, so by now they should have a handle to...

Sez Me … Every year we hear it, no matter the sport, but especially in the NFL, where good reasoning at the time often becomes a “What the hell were you thinking?” later on. The microscope never is put away. In 2018, the specimen on the slide is Patrick Mahomes. Or, how could so many teams pass...

The spitballing barrage aimed at the Judases’ vulnerable fortification has risen to the point of forming a winter Alp. For the past few weeks, I’ve been sitting around — which I do extremely well — enjoying all the chatter and prose regarding the latest stumblings and grumblings and conspiracy...

Sez Me … Next thing you know, Roger Goodell will be sending Alabama to London. OK, forget the noise about Bama being able to beat, say, the NFL’s Bills. The Tide would get tidal waved. But against anybody else? I’ve never seen a such a disparity from No. 1 to No. 2, onto the field. And my first...

Union-Tribune columnist Nick Canepa issues his grades for the Chargers after Sunday's 20-19 victory over Tennessee in London. Quarterbacks: A Attempting to become the third-most popular Philip in London, Rivers hit Tyrell Williams on a 75-yard TD pass on his first play, taking up 9 seconds in Eurotime....

Sez Me … The NFL has become the Big 12. LaDainian Tomlinson calls it “basketball on grass.” He is not speaking of hoopsters Bogarting joints. The Hall of Fame tailback is referring to football, modern football, what it has become. I certainly don’t agree with everything LT has to say these days...

Nick Canepa

Union-Tribune columnist Nick Canepa issues his grades for the Chargers after their 38-14 rout of the Cleveland Browns on Sunday in Cleveland. Quarterbacks: A- Philip Rivers, whose motto is “Nunc Coepi” (begin again), has had trouble living up to that — beginning games. Not Sunday, with a TD on...

Sez Me ... This looked to have reached the line to gain. But, just to drive me crazy, I think Russian officials have perpetuated it with a bad spot. Every time Drew Brees does something special — and he often does something great, because, well, he’s a great quarterback — we hear it. How could...

Alex Spanos was Greatest Generation-hardened steel Totally self-forged. He had a daily regimen and stuck to it. And yet there was a softness to him, especially when it came to family, where there was a fierce loyalty — and to his Greek heritage. As Chargers owner, Spanos, who died Tuesday at 95...

Union-Tribune columnist Nick Canepa issues his grades for the Chargers after their 26-10 victory Sunday against the Raiders at StubHub Center in Carson. Quarterbacks: A In front of NFL principal Roger Goodell, in attendance for his first Raiders home game at Carson High, Philip Rivers got off to...

Sez Me … Should the lame-duck Raiders leave Oakland, where there is no there, and spend (at least) their 2019 pre-Vegas season in San Diego, where there is there, but no NFL team? Some people say we don’t want them. I say, why not? The Ham and Eggers at City Hall should turn off the grill for a...

Union-Tribune columnist Nick Canepa issues his grades for the Chargers after Sunday’s 29-27 victory over San Francisco at StubHub Center in Carson. Quarterbacks: B In front of thousands of red shirts (not the Judases’ color) at Carson High, Philip Rivers pitched an awful pick-six on his second...

Sez Me … Wil Myers can’t help but be out of position. He has no position to be out of. He should find a new one soon, one suited to his skill set — in another major league city. Preferably one with a designated hitter. Myers, a major, expensive contributor to one of the most putrid seasons in Padres...

“Biggest thing ever happened in Mayberry. REAL big. Big. BIG. Big.” — Barney Fife Has it happened before? Anytime? Anyplace? Anywhere? Where else, but right here in Mayberry By The Sea, can the biggest and most interesting sporting event in the world that means absolutely nothing be held? The insatiable,...

Union-Tribune columnist Nick Canepa grades the Chargers after their 35-23 loss Sunday to the Rams in the 'Fight for L.A.' Quarterbacks: B At first it appeared the Judases would play Michael Spinks to the Rams’ Mike Tyson in the Fight for L.A. But Philip Rivers’ chin was solid enough to just lose...

Sez Me … Granted, if I retire in the middle of this column, a whole lot of people are going to be elated — especially the downtown ham and eggers, certainly Sly Fredo and the Family Spanos, and undoubtedly many bicyclists. Maybe a few readers won’t. You know, family members, and that wouldn’t be...

Union-Tribune columnist Nick Canepa issues his grades for the Chargers after their 31-20 victory at Buffalo on Sunday: Quarterbacks: A Just when it seemed Gen. Philip Rivers had the most weaponry with so little opposition since Athens High, the second half started and everyone went to sleep on...

Sez Me … As the seconds, minutes, hours and days go by, I continue to be dumbfounded by the NFL Team That Used To Be Here’s move to the greater Los Angeles area. Primarily because, as the seconds, minutes, hours and days go by, dumber and dumber things surface, even to the dumbfounded. First of...

The Judases — aka The NFL Team That Used To Be Here — play a football game Sunday against Buffalo. Which, on a degree of difficulty scale, should be similar to playing against car wash brushes. The Bills are awful. They didn’t have a first down over the first two quarters of play in last week’s...

Union-Tribune columnist Nick Canepa issues his grades for the Chargers’ season-opening 38-28 loss to Kansas City at StubHub Center in Carson: Quarterbacks: B At unfilled Carson High (Arrowhead West), Philip Rivers deserved so much better (threw for 424 yards and 3 scores but almost had as many...

Sez Me … The NFL has become such a theater of the absurd it’s difficult to rank particular outrages in Unsocial Media revues. The broad stage is lousy with bad actors, bad direction, bad scripts. Drama critics thought the President would be wearing Kaepernick Nikes before so much money was awarded...